1. Field
Embodiments relate to an image forming apparatus, a printing charging system, and a method for charging for printing, and more particularly, to an image forming apparatus, a printing charging system, and a method for charging for printing, which group a plurality of image forming apparatuses and allow them to share quota information.
2. Description of the Related Art
As used herein, an image forming apparatus is an apparatus that renders printing data generated by a terminal device such as a computer and tangibly produces the rendered printing data on a recording medium. Examples of such an image forming apparatus include copiers, printers, facsimile machines, and multi-function peripherals (MFP) incorporating the functions of the aforementioned devices into a single device.
Recently, public offices, universities, or enterprises use an administration server to control several image forming apparatuses easily. Such an administration server provides a job accounting operation for each individual.
However, according to a related-art job accounting method, an administration server owns quota information of users, and an image forming apparatus should request the administration server to transmit the quota information or receive a confirmation as to whether a printing process is being in progress or not from the administration server every time that the image forming apparatus performs a job. Therefore, as the number of image forming apparatuses connected to the administration server increases, a traffic problem between the image forming apparatus and the administration server becomes more serious.
Also, in the case that the image forming apparatus stores therein quota information and performs job accounting, a user has no choice but to perform a printing job using an image forming apparatus in which his or her own quota information is stored. Therefore, there is a need for a job accounting method, which can reduce traffic load between an administration server and an image forming apparatus and which can perform a printing job using a plurality of image forming apparatuses more easily.